The Scrimmage
by fbeauchamphartz
Summary: Sebastian has a crush on the head cheerleader from another school, so he does something kind of desperate to get his attention. Will pretending to be team captain for one game work out the way he hopes it will? Kurtbastian. Kurt H. Sebastian S.


**A/N:** **Dalton/Lacrosse Captain (sort of) Sebastian and Head Cheerio Kurt. Alternate first meeting, with Kurt and Sebastian being junior-ish age, and Sebastian being a bit more of a geek in this one. Warning for an incident of minor assault and language.**

"Please, Hunter?" Sebastian begged, bearing down on his friend as Hunter tried desperately to avoid him. "It's just this one game."

"I said no, Sebastian," Hunter sighed, veering toward the parking lot in hopes of losing the annoying hanger-on amidst the rows of cars.

"But it's just a JV scrimmage," Sebastian whined, keeping pace with Hunter from one aisle of cars over. "Carter did it last year, and Jensen the year before that. It's practically a Dalton tradition."

Hunter shook his head and sighed. Sebastian was kind of right, but still, he swore as captain he wouldn't cave to ridiculous requests, and this one was about as ridiculous as they got.

"And why would you want to pretend to be captain of the lacrosse team for a lousy scrimmage anyway? There's probably only going to be twelves of people in the stands. Leading the team to victory for this one…it's not like it's going to make you a lacrosse God or something."

"I…have my reasons," Sebastian said, his voice dropping.

"And I haven't heard any of them," Hunter said. "I mean, come on. You want me to go against one of my principle tenets of leadership, and you won't even tell me why? That's not right, Sebastian. I thought we were buds."

Sebastian joined up with his friend so he wouldn't have to yell across the cars when he told Hunter his secret.

"It's…because…we're playing against McKinley," Sebastian mumbled, not meeting Hunter's eyes.

"That's right," Hunter said. "A _public_ school. They've only had a lacrosse team for about three years, and they suck. Why would you even…" Hunter stopped short, a devilish grin taking over his entire face. "Oh, I know what this is about." Hunter turned on his friend. "It's their new head cheerleader, isn't it? That guy…uh…Kevin! No, not Kevin. Kirk!"

"Kurt," Sebastian corrected, his voice subconsciously taking on a dreamy quality.

Hunter rolled his eyes. _Oh God. Puberty finally caught up to Sebastian Smythe._

"Fine," Hunter said, grabbing the shoulder of Sebastian's jersey and leading his starry-eyed friend to the field. "But you know you're going to owe me."

"It's a scrimmage," Sebastian huffed. "I would say that _you_ owe _me_."

Sebastian followed Hunter to the Dalton side of the field. Spectators had started filling the stands – with huge blank spaces in between. Hunter was right. Barely anyone came to the scrimmages, and the ones who did were just hanging out, killing time till later when the Varsity team would take the field.

Hunter gestured to the boys on the grass, warming up and running drills.

"Fall in, guys. Come on. Fall in, fall in," he said, bringing his team in for a huddle. "Alright, gentlemen, we're going to be changing things up for today's scrimmage. In the grand tradition of the Dalton boys who came before us who ever wanted to bang an away team cheerleader, Smythe here" – Hunter put his hands on Sebastian's shoulder – "will be playing captain. Let's try and make him look good. If he manages to get himself laid, drinks are on him."

The Dalton team retreated to the locker room to suit up as the McKinley team's buses entered the parking lot. Sebastian dropped back, walking slow and peeking over the cars to see if he could catch a glimpse of the cheerleaders' bus. It was a long shot that the head cheerleader would even be there. McKinley didn't have a Varsity team yet, and sometimes only the JV cheerleaders and their captain accompanied the JV lacrosse team to away games.

The guys caught Sebastian lagging and grabbed him, surrounding him completely and dragging him through the parking lot to get ready, not giving him a chance for any further investigation.

"You…you assholes!" Sebastian grunted, trying to pull away, but four boys had him, and that was enough to subdue him.

"Calm your tits, Smythe," Joshua said. "Your cheerleader's here."

Sebastian gave up the struggle. That was all he needed to hear.

When the Dalton team came back out on to the field, geared up and ready to play, the McKinley team was already there, gathered in a huddle, talking over their plays. The cheerleaders had assembled on the sidelines, some of them stretching, some practicing cheers, and in the middle of them, helping a junior cheerleader thread red and white ribbon curls into her high pony, was Kurt. He looked as miraculous in his formfitting uniform today as he did the first time Sebastian saw him, at their first Dalton/McKinley scrimmage, which took place at McKinley High last season. Ever since then, Sebastian's had been a long distance infatuation. He followed the cheerleading blogs, signed up for a fake student account on the McKinley website so he could view the team's student access only webpage, went to every cheerleading competition he could in order to cheer Kurt on. Sebastian stalked Kurt on every form of social media, sending him anonymous messages on Tumblr and poking him on Facebook. And when Kurt's boyfriend of two years broke up with him, Sebastian 'liked' his Facebook status and silently cheered, hoping that this was the year he might get his chance.

Sebastian had to come up with a gesture, something big to win Kurt over, but first, he had to make sure that Kurt knew he was alive. Being team captain was part one of that master plan. (There wasn't really a part two. After Hunter's initial 'being a member of the Dalton lacrosse team is an honor and a privilege' speech, where he outlined that under no circumstances would any player be receiving preferential treatment no matter who they were or how well they played, Sebastian didn't think he'd get this far.)

But it didn't matter, since it didn't really seem to be doing the trick. Even when the Dalton team took to the field, and the announcer went through the team roster, mentioning that Sebastian would take the place of team captain for the scrimmage, Kurt barely looked his way, deeply embroiled in a discussion with two other cheerleaders over the correct way to land a round off-whip-double back handspring-layout, a move that Kurt demonstrated so effortlessly, so flawlessly, that Sebastian couldn't keep his eyes off him.

He didn't know how much Kurt was paying attention during the actual game, but the opposing team figured out fairly early on that Sebastian was distracted, and he became their main target - a critical failing of McKinley's team. But the majority of their lacrosse team was made up of football players after McKinley's 'acting principal' disbanded the football team in order to redistribute football funds to the cheerleading squad. No one knew the whole story. Most people assumed it was a joke. Regardless, the Dalton team readjusted their strategy, and it eventually worked to their advantage.

Sebastian wanted to keep an eye on Kurt, to see if Kurt was watching him, or just to watch Kurt flip, which Sebastian could do all day, but he had to keep his head in the game or he was going to make a bigger ass of himself than he had already. He only saw Kurt in snippets and side-glances, cheering for his team, one time performing a jump split that almost stopped Sebastian in his tracks. The next time Sebastian got a chance to look Kurt's way, there was a guy standing beside him. Sebastian didn't know if Kurt knew the guy. He wasn't wearing Dalton or McKinley colors. From what Sebastian could tell, Kurt didn't seem very comfortable around him. The boy introduced himself, and Kurt nodded politely. The boy talked to him, and Kurt took a few steps away. Then Kurt excused himself, going back to his bag for a water bottle, and while the other cheerleaders practiced a pyramid, the boy grabbed Kurt. He put a hand over Kurt's mouth, and dragged him toward the bleachers. Dalton had control of the ball when Sebastian saw, but whether they did or not, it only took him a second to decide what to do.

"Time out!" he screamed. "Time out! I'm calling a time out!"

"Dalton Academy has called for a time out," the announcer said over the speakers, then continued to jabber on about how this was their first time out, what the score was, and yada-yada-yada. Sebastian stopped listening.

"Sebastian!" he heard Hunter yell. "You can't call a time out now! We're winning!" but Sebastian was already running across the grass towards the far bleachers.

The McKinley cheerleaders all knew Sebastian had a thing for Kurt. They'd been teasing Kurt about it for most of the game, which was why he had drifted away from the pack, to escape the persistent jokes for a while. When the giggling girls saw Sebastian coming, face set, eyes seething, they finally seemed to realize that Kurt wasn't with them. They fanned out along the sidelines, looking for their missing captain. A brunette cheerleader found him first, grabbing at the larger boy's shoulders and shoving him, but he had a firm hold on Kurt's waist, and took Kurt down to the grass with him.

"Get off of me!" Kurt screamed, spinning around and getting in a right hook that made Sebastian wince, both for the impact to the boy's jaw and Kurt's fist. "Let go of me!"

One of the other cheerleaders kicked the boy in the side, while another tried to pry Kurt up, but the boy on the ground was just too massive for any of it to be effective.

The people in the bleachers were too far away or too preoccupied to notice the attack going on, but other players on the field finally began to take notice. One exceedingly tall boy, whom Sebastian had heard referred to as 'Frankenteen' by one of his teammates, bellowed, "Kurt! Oh my God! Kurt!" from the field behind them.

"Hey!" Sebastian called, throwing down his stick at the sidelines. "Let him go!"

The boy on the ground looked past Kurt, still fighting in his arms, at Sebastian, and chuckled. "Or what, prep school?"

Sebastian didn't say. He simply walked up to the boy and planted his cleated heel into the boy's crotch. The boy wailed in pain, doubling over and reaching for his groin, and Kurt took the opportunity to bolt from the boy's arms.

"Or that," Sebastian said, more sadistic than smug, as he stood and waited for the boy to stand, or for an official, or a coach, or a referee to come out and do something. Sebastian could have left it at that. He could have walked Kurt away and let the officials take over, but then the boy on the ground sat up, and he had to open his big, dumb mouth.

"You can have the fucking slut," the boy grumbled through gritted teeth. "He's not worth it."

And that's the moment when any shred of Sebastian's good judgment flew straight out the window. He bent over and slugged the boy in the nose.

"Holy fuck!" the boy screamed, hands cupping his face, blood dribbling past his palms and down his chin.

 _That's_ when the adults took action. In about half-a-second after Sebastian's punch, the officials and the referees made a ruling.

"Acting team captain for the Dalton team, Sebastian Smythe, has been disqualified."

The stadium roared, spectators from both sides who had finally noticed the scuffle on their feet when the announcement was made. The McKinley cheerleaders rushed the official's box, both teams converged on the referees, everyone vying for a reversal of the call, considering the circumstances. But Sebastian knew it would happen. He'd gone a step too far, and there was nothing he could do about it now. He didn't hear anything else. He picked up his stick and walked off the sidelines, feeling the eyes of the school, the crowd, and Kurt watch him go.

Sebastian walked straight back to the locker room and started to undress. He packed his uniform in his gear bag, deciding he'd wait to take his shower at home. He didn't want to stick around. He should probably just leave his fucking gear there. He blew it this time. Not only did he not win the guy, he was going to get tossed from the team for sure.

Somewhere between putting his sneakers on and starting to tighten them, he heard a throat cleared. He assumed it was Hunter, fresh off the field to mock him and tell him what for, rib him for throwing his high school lacrosse career away for a guy he didn't even get. It would be dubbed a 'classic Sebastian Smythe maneuver' from now on. Well, without lacrosse, Sebastian would have more time for other things, like yearbook, photography…maybe stamp club was looking for a president. He'd need something to pad his Harvard application since lacrosse was off the table.

He'd figure something out. He just didn't want to figure it out right now, and not with Hunter's sarcastic excuse for help. Hunter might be his best friend, but Sebastian hated the feeling that Hunter thought he existed solely for his amusement.

"Look, Hunter" - Sebastian kept his head bent as he tied his shoes so he wouldn't have to see the _I told you so grin_ on Hunter's conceited face - "whatever you're going to say, save it. I'm not really in the mood for your bullshit."

"I was going to say thank you."

Sebastian looked up, but it wasn't Hunter he saw. Without thinking about it, he smiled at the boy standing in the doorway. "Hey."

"Hey," Kurt said, stepping into the locker room. He had his red-and-white cheer duffle thrown over his right shoulder, and he favored his right hand, which was wrapped in white tape. "I wanted to talk to you, but you left so quickly."

"Being disqualified will do that to you," Sebastian said, trying to sound bitter, but failing with this handsome cheerleader's beautiful blue eyes gazing at him with admiration.

"They're still discussing that, actually," Kurt said. "The game's a wash, but after all the people who rushed the field to vouch for you, you might get off with a warning."

"Yeah?" Sebastian was relieved, not that helping Kurt wasn't worth getting disqualified over. It totally was, but it was nice to know that so many people went to bat for him…which probably meant Hunter did, too.

Shit. Now he owed him _two_.

"I just came by to…I wanted to…you know, thank you, for coming to my rescue."

"You're welcome," Sebastian said, letting himself feel hopeful, but not getting too carried away. "But you don't have to thank me. That guy was an asshole. He got what he deserved."

"And then some," Kurt chuckled, thinking back on the boy lying in the grass with his hands over his nose, blood pouring out like a geyser.

"No," Sebastian said, standing and taking a step up to Kurt with anger kindling a fire in his eyes. "No, he got exactly what he deserved. No less."

Kurt nodded, taken back by Sebastian's conviction.

"Anyway," Kurt said, "I thought that maybe since you forfeited a scrimmage just to help me out, I might introduce myself. You know, properly."

"Uh, sure. Okay." Sebastian held his hand out for Kurt to shake, mildly uncomfortable that the time had come for him to tell the truth. "I'm Sebastian Smythe. I begged my friend Hunter to let me be captain for the scrimmage so that maybe you would notice me."

"And it worked," Kurt said, taking Sebastian's hand and shaking it. "I'm Kurt. Kurt Hummel. I spent the last hour or so watching you get your ass handed to you, and I wanted to know if maybe you'd consider getting coffee with me."

"Don't you have to go back with your bus?" Sebastian asked, kicking himself right after for opening his mouth and not saying the words, " _Yes, I'd love to,"_ instead.

"Well, I _am_ head cheerleader," Kurt said, rocking back and forth on nervous feet. "I pretty much do whatever I want."

Sebastian nodded, liking the sound of that, since doing whatever he wanted might include dating a member of an opposing team.

"Yeah," Sebastian said, tossing the last of his stuff into his bag and slinging it over his shoulder. "Yeah, I'd like that."


End file.
